Yılmaz, who is also a former imam and former propagandist of political Islamist National View (Milli Görüş) ideology of late Necmettin Erbakan, has claimed while crying on a TV program that “it was predicted in a hadith that a victory awaited them on the 16th of April” referring to the constitutional referendum to pave way for the executive presidency for Erdoğan.

Yılmaz also added “When Turkey advances, the Beytullah (the house of God) also advances. Saying ‘yes’ on the 16th of April will make you a loved servitor of the Beytullah (the house of God).”

Erdoğan and his supporters, who sees the referendum a breaking point for their political Islamist agenda, have launched an aggressive “yes” campaign for the referendum. They frequently refer to the Qur’an verses and other holy phrases of Islam to manipulate conservative segments of Turkish society on the behalf of “yes” vote in referendum.

As manipulating anything for sake of “yes” vote, Turkish government has detained at least 80 people who have endorsed a “no” campaign for an upcoming referendum, according to Transparency International’s (TI) Turkey branch.

TI Turkey has said in a statement on Feb. 17, 2017 that it monitors incidents of rights abuse and unlawful government actions in the run-up to the referendum and share the results with the public in regularly released reports. In the first of such reports, TI Turkey said over 80 people were detained while campaigning for a “no” vote between Dec. 25 and Jan. 31.